The Bearings, Vol 12, No 5
Articles in this issue
- Weekly circuit recap: Chicago's C. H. Callahan scores the week's lone upset winning the mile open at Toronto, the Monarch team of Cooper and Bliss surges to 68 points, and Charley Murphy leads all lone riders with 53; a party of thirty-three Americans travels the Canadian circuit by special car toward Montreal and the Labor Day meet at Waltham, with a full team points and prize-winnings table led by Bald's $2,980.
- Tom Cooper gets a hero's welcome and a bouquet in his native Mt. Clemens, Mich., winning the two-mile handicap, while Murphy edges Bliss by a foot in a tandem-paced mile in 2:01 2/5, the fastest mile ever ridden behind a tandem; Titus, Gardiner, and Anderson also feature across the two days of Class A and B racing.
- Editor George K. Barrett's editorial on the collapse of the Chicago Coliseum, built to host the October Cycle Show and five-day race tournament, reassures readers the accident (with no loss of life) will not derail either event, which will move to a new electrically lit track.
- Editorial renewing The Bearings' complaint that tandem, triplet, and quad pacemakers give an unfair advantage to individual riders in short open races, arguing single pacemakers give all competitors an equal chance.
- Editorial denouncing American railroads for beginning to levy excess-baggage charges on wheelmen's bicycles, arguing a bicycle is ordinary baggage and the charge is simply retaliation for lost passenger revenue.
- Philadelphia dispatch reporting the surprise resignation of long-serving Pennsylvania Division Secretary-Treasurer Van Nort of Scranton, with P. S. Collins of Philadelphia named as his probable successor.
- News account of the Chicago Coliseum's sudden collapse during construction, days before it was to host the Barnum & Bailey circus, noting no one was hurt only because one work shift had just left and the next had not yet begun.
- St. Louis dispatch on the Associated Cycling Clubs' diamond tournament at Pastime Track, where C. M. Murphy swept the Class B mile open and handicap and Alex Laing broke the state novice record in 2:15, while 'Dute' Cabanne could only manage second behind Murphy in the mile open.
- Cincinnati dispatch reporting the Consolidated Street Railway Co. will build a cemented, banked one-third-mile track at Chester Park modeled on Louisville's Fountain Ferry course, complete with electric timing apparatus and a clubhouse.
- Chicago roundup on the rain-hampered Century Road Club of America's annual century run to Elgin and Aurora (127 of an expected 800 starters, won unofficially by J. H. Zahn), the revival of racing at the old Parkside track, and R. P. Searle's planned attempt on the Chicago-New York cycling record.
- London letter reporting R. Palmer's new English amateur bests from three to nineteen miles at Catford, A. J. Watson's mile-race loss to Danish rider Ingeman Petersen at Ordrup near Copenhagen, and continuing ladies' races at Scarborough and Edinburgh despite public disapproval.
- New York dispatch on a lively professional meet at Manhattan Beach before 3,000 spectators, where A. W. Porter won the one-mile professional handicap in 2:03 2/5 and Harry Tyler took the half-mile professional scratch race.
- Aurora, Ill., dispatch on a two-day meet swept by visiting Chicago racers C. C. Ingraham of Dixon, S. C. Cox, and A. C. Van Nest, marred by George L. Emerson's serious fall after being fouled by Cox and Nelson in the half-mile open.
- Minneapolis dispatch on the six-day women's race at Athletic Park, where local rider Miss Christopher nearly upset the traveling professionals before Minneapolis's Miss Nelson won by a single lap, 293.4 miles to 293.3.
- Brantford, Ont., dispatch describing the circuit party's hostile reception by the Brantford Cycling Club, including withheld race tickets until entry fees were paid and prize money cut a third below what was promised.
- Stratford, Ont., dispatch on a half-mile handicap won by Bernhardt over Brown and a mile open won by Cooper over Rigby and McLeod, with Marshall Wells taking his third Canadian-circuit mile handicap win of the trip.
- London, Ont., dispatch on Cooper's mile-open win over Rigby and Coulter before an enthusiastic crowd at the London Bicycle Club meet, where Brown and Alf Young split the half-mile handicap heats.
- L.A.W. Racing Board column listing Chairman Gideon's latest transfers of riders to Class B and professional ranks and a long roster of Sunday-racing suspensions, plus a note that G. A. Phillips broke the fifteen-mile road record at Erie, Pa.
- Anecdote on trainer Billy Herrick's diplomatic handling of rival manager Asa Windle's repeated protests against Gardiner and the Morgan & Wright team, with the referee's rulings usually favoring Herrick's side.
- Human-interest note on the novelty match race at the recent Toledo meet between five-and-a-half-year-old Anna Yost, riding the latest Falcon model, and her brother on an old Springfield roadster built by their father.
- Prize-winning $5 reader paragraph by M. W. Richards of Kalamazoo, Mich., on how the bicycle has eased the work of women newspaper reporters, a woman physician, and Woman's Exchange clerks and delivery workers.
- Reader paragraph by George Kinsman of Fremont, Wis., advising against leaving a wheel in the sun, oiling both sides of hub bearings, keeping the chain clean with graphite rather than oil, and never using kerosene to cement a tire.
- Reader paragraph by A. C. Robinson of Louisville, Ky., criticizing newspaper and magazine illustrators for pairing fashionably dressed cyclists with outdated, years-old wheel models in their drawings.
- Reader paragraph by Miss E. Winnifred Hill of Hillsdale, Mich., condemning the L.A.W. Racing Board for allowing young children to attempt record-breaking rides before crowds, urging a ban on child racing.
- Announcement of The Bearings' ongoing $5-a-week paragraph competition and a $50 prize for the best article on selling bicycles on the road, with full manuscript and submission rules for both contests.
- New York dispatch on the Albany Bicycle Club's Class A championship meet at Ridgefield before 3,000 spectators, where H. P. Mosher won both the third-mile and two-thirds-mile New York state championships.
- Milwaukee dispatch reporting western railroads out of St. Paul have begun charging excess-baggage rates for bicycles and baby carriages, with General Baggage Agent Carrick predicting the rule will spread nationwide.
- Sarnia, Ont., dispatch on a scheduling oversight by Chairman Gideon that nearly cost the town its circuit date, salvaged by recruiting riders from the Mt. Clemens meet; Angus McLeod of Sarnia won the Canadian twenty-five-mile championship.
- Denver dispatch on the state division meet, where R. A. Datzell set a world novice record for the paced mile and A. B. Hughes of the Denver Wheel Club set a new Class A unpaced record of 2:10.
- Syracuse, N.Y., dispatch on America's second-ever tandem road race over the Cicero course, won by Thompson and McCaw of the Syracuse Athletic Association in a state-record 25:27 for ten miles.
- Minneapolis dispatch on plans, organized by the Commercial Club, for a bicycle carnival and parade of an estimated 10,000 wheels during the state fair, led by the St. Cloud bicycle band.
- Independence, Iowa, dispatch on O. L. Stevens of Ottumwa lowering L. D. Cabanne's quarter-mile unpaced record from :25 to :23 4/5 at the Independence track.
- Circuit gossip column on complaints over tight handicap limits, the rivalry between Morgan & Wright tandem pacemakers Van Herik and Lund over a shared blanket, and injuries sidelining E. C. Johnson (a knee) and Louie Callahan (typhoid malaria fever).
- Milwaukee dispatch on the South Milwaukee road race won by limit man John Cruse in twenty-five minutes, while Morgan & Wright rider B. W. Twyman, starting from scratch, finished far back in fortieth place.
- Milwaukee dispatch on the state circuit races at Lake Mills, where M. S. O'Brien and W. C. Schrader each won multiple events before a large delegation of Milwaukee riders.
- Milwaukee dispatch on the rain-postponed Waukesha state circuit races, refereed by H. A. Githens of Chicago, with Wisconsin records to one mile lowered by W. C. Schrader and Will Sanger the following day.
- Syracuse dispatch on L. C. Johnson, paced by trainer Tom W. Eck's team of Seavey, O'Connor, Steenson, and Weinig, covering the fastest half-mile ever made by a wheelman on a circular horse track in :52 2/5.
- Rockville, Conn., dispatch on the Rockville Wheel Club's fourth annual meet, where Boston's W. S. Reynolds upset Connecticut state champion C. R. Newton in the mile open, only for Newton to reverse the result in the half-mile.
- Milwaukee dispatch reporting Chief Consul A. Cressy Morrison of Wisconsin is likely to run for L.A.W. president, with Secretary-Treasurer Rotier receiving inquiries from Morrison's supporters in Boston and New York.
- New York dispatch on a windy but well-attended local meet at Patchogue, Long Island, where Clarence Ruland won the Suffolk County championship and mile handicap and H. K. Roe took the two-mile and five-mile handicaps.
- Toledo dispatch on the Toledo Exposition harness races, where Harry Tyler beat L. C. Johnson and Walter Sanger in the mile open flying start and also won the mile handicap from scratch.
- Century Road Club of America listing of newly certified state and territory road records, including A. E. Smith's American record of 6:03:50:00 for Chicago to New York and several Missouri and Iowa state marks.
- Trade note on William E. Gard of New York's new detachable-crank design, which lets riders remove and replace ball-bearing cranks in a moment without losing a ball or misplacing a part.
- Trade note on the Ariel Cycle Mfg. Co. of Goshen, Ind., which sold all 3,500 wheels built this year and plans a 4,500-wheel output for 1896 under new general manager E. W. Hawkes after an $80,000 recapitalization.
- Trade note on the Williams Globe benzine vapor lamp, now handled by Hibbard, Spencer, Bartlett & Co., which burns for twelve hours on absorbent cotton and benzine and weighs only eleven ounces.
- Trade note on the Record Cycle Co.'s move from Indianapolis to a new factory in Seymour, Ind., where it will build about 1,500 high-grade '96 Record wheels featuring a reversible handle-bar.
- Anecdote on C. E. Weaver of the Boston Woven Hose & Rubber Co.'s Vim tire department naming a vivid new 1896 racing-tire color 'floxine' after fielding endless questions from office callers.
- Trade note describing Joseph Oettinger and M. A. Schutt of Michigan City, Ind.'s new puncture-repair device, which uses a collar, plunger, and wafer-like rubber patch and allows a second patch to be layered over a leaking first one.
- Trade note on the Chicago Stamping Co. shifting all its energies to bicycle manufacturing under the brand name 'United States,' having ordered raw material for 10,000 machines.
- Louisville, Ky., dispatch reporting repair-shop owner W. C. Mann, who also held the Relay wheel agency, made a business assignment to M. B. Kendrick.
- Trade note on the Eastman Kodak Co.'s new pocket kodak camera, aimed at cyclists for its light five-ounce weight, with a testimonial letter from A. H. Overman of the Overman Wheel Co.
- Trade note on E. M. Graham's new adjustable pedal, which weighs twelve ounces and can be fitted to any width of foot, a feature the former Fowler factory superintendent expects will suit ladies' machines especially well.
- Trade note on the Century Cycle Mfg. Co. of Shelbyville, Ind., expanding output from 1,200 wheels this season to 10,000 for 1896, running its electrically powered plant with two shifts around the clock.
- Miscellany of trade gossip: E. E. Anderson and James Levy riding Napoleon wheels, Porter & Gilmour of New York preparing their new Sagamore wheel, McKeon and Klinger's tandem wins at Warsaw and Wabash, Ind., and M. F. Dirnberger's breach-of-contract suit against the Shapleigh Hardware Co. and Syracuse Cycle Co.
- London letter on the St. George's Engineering Co.'s failed trademark suit against S. J. Kent's St. George's Cycle Co., 1896 pattern changes including dust-proof Humber-style hubs, and Humber & Co.'s share price climbing to $90.
- Philadelphia dispatch reporting persistent hot weather is slowing trade despite strong installment-plan demand for Victor and Crescent wheels from Garden & Brewster and growing popularity of the Stearns among Quaker City riders.
- Quote from General Manager Crowther of the Peerless Mfg. Co. describing new $100 and $125 tubular-frame 1896 models and a stripped-down $85 Triumph line, backed by a factory expansion to a 500-bicycle weekly capacity.
- Trade note on the Shapleigh Hardware Co.'s 1896 contracts for 25,000 wheels, including 10,000 Syracuse-brand machines, to be sold by a road force of seventy-five salesmen.
- Detroit dispatch reporting the dealership of Huber & Metzger has dissolved by mutual consent, with William E. Metzger retiring and Stanley B. Huber continuing the business alone.
- Column of one-line trade notes from across the country, including new bicycle manufacturers organizing in Dolgeville, N.Y., Grand Rapids, Mich., and Milwaukee, Wis., plus factory fires in Trenton, N.J., and McKeesport, Pa.
- Listing of four newly issued bicycle patents, including William W. Batchelder's belt-holder and James W. Shone's mud-guard, plus two Supplee Hardware Co. trademark registrations for 'Supplee Special' and 'Supplee Standard.'